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I have been having numerous arguments with people regarding Android vs the rest.
We all know that Android is an operating system, that is used by many phone manufacturers - therefore it CANNOT be compared to iPhone directly and vise versa!
Same thing is about Windows OS.
What I am trying to say is that Android equipment manufacturers have to step up the game. I believe that making a new phone every other month is a BIG NO NO. Especially when the phone is not well tested.
As an example, I own myTouch 4G. First one had a washed out screen and not working Genius button. Second one had a spic of dust under the screen, but lucky for me - it had both good screen and eMMC. So I decided to keep it. Other folks have their phones die on them because of the bad eMMC chip.
Similar issue goes to the G2 (I read about bad eMMC chips). I also heard that Sensation has some issues too!
I witnessed people exchanging up to 7 phones, and yet to get a good one.
On the other hand, Samsung devices are seem to be very plastic on the touch. I did held them in hand. Yes, the screen looks gorgeous, but the phone itself feels bad in the hand.
LG is another story.
I haven't tried or read about SE phones.
You would ask, why the hell did I write this all?
I simply want to voice my opinion. I just sick to see all these phones popping out and then read that one has bad power button, another has 2 types of screen, and then get one of them. I really want to see Android rise up in class!
Heck for not having problems I could have gone with iPhone, but I am an Android fan and chose it because it can do what I need!
I believe with the resources that Samsung, HTC, LG and other have - they can do so much better!
Lets discuss what bad sides Android phones have and what can be improved. I think it is more productive topic than fighting over blindly.
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
There's nowhere near the level of QC there used to be in the 'real' smartphones - Treos, Communicators, iPAQs etc.
I think they do a pretty good job, there's a fit and finish for just about every taste out there today. The target audience has changed a lot, the userbase has expanded exponentially, plus there are many more manufacturers today, all vying for a slice of the pie - price competitiveness has a lot to do with this, too.
It sucks, but these things are built to be thrown away. Why pump billions of dollars into the fit and finish of something outdated two weeks after it hits the streets? Sucks for us, but 'near enough is good enough' for the manufacturers, and fair enough in my opinion
z33dev33l said:
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
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Agreed about Samsung durability, I've dropped my phone on probably every surface and it is still good.
As for android there many problems with the OS. No hardware acceleration is probably big on my list. My nexus runs pretty good but I do notice lag from time to time. Stock browser is a joke to use, hella amounts of lag when viewing pics and forget about even viewing flash, so opera for me.
I hope ICS will live up to the hype, because I'm really digging the Nokia and windows mobile deal. Only time will tell...
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
I was rooting for androids latest iteration to blow at least iOS out of the water but if that leaked nexus build is a final it doesn't even look smooth on a nexus device...
Who know?Probably NOT a final build as it as no acceleration. Word is that ICS will have hardware acceleration for both the interface and browser.
We will see.It does look impressive though....
On quality:My HTC Desire is horrendous, all buttons are almost dead, that has to do with quality. On the other hand my Huawei IDEOS X5 is surprisingly good for what i paid for (hint: zero but costs about 199euros).
If you want quality go for a truly expensive and good phone like the gs2, if not buy smething cheaper.
P.S. the buttons on the iphone 4 HAVE problems.3 of my friends went to the applestore to change them.That is not good build quality imho.
Eh, I like dells build quality though they fail as a software company. Honestly though I do hope ics is more impressive than it looked in that video because that was just slow and choppy, then again I guess the default UI of android isn't what's supposed to sell android. It's the customization options available.
I have a HTC Desire HD, and in my oppinion Android+Sense is the best mobile combo. all the good things from android + an awesome HTC skin.
Company's like Samsung don't make skins for their phones. I think that they should start making them. Ans if they do that, i might buy a Samsung phone or something like that after my HTC. But if they dont start making skins, i don´t want them...
i like my desire with htc sense, also like iphone with long time battery.
z33dev33l said:
The reason for Samsung's "plastic" feel is durability, you drop a metal phone then the weight is going to make it more likely to break, the plastics Samsung uses often just has the back pop off, maybe a scratch.
As for HTC, they're just not a quality company. They build devices that are pretty from afar but once you use them they often have horrid flaws. Very little quality control.
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+1
i own HTC devices with metal... and all of them are broken, chipped so badly i have to pull out my sandy paper or file to smooth the metal back out, because the phone shell has been ripped apart after many close encounter with the floor
since i switched to Samsung the plastic design has proven that it can handle the drops much better than the metal
I got an issue with samsung and their software updates.
I've been lucky so far with HTC. Good build quality and frequently updated software.
If I need to trade off iphone quality for the freedom of Android, I will.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
There got to be some military grade glass, that will hold all kinds of abuse. My back cover of Glacier is already swinging from side to side. I really hope that this upcoming Nexus will fix all of the issues I, and many other, have with Android phones build quality.
I still do not get, where did samsung got info that 4.65" screen is good for everyone?
hmm. interesting thread, and views.
my experience hasn't been so great with samsung phones. i had a samsung moment and that thing was terrible. and apparently the gs2 is having some problems as well. users have reported problems with the screen/display having some kind of stain like color on it, and the wifi antenna has also been reported by many to be skittish.
not surprising to me. that's what happens when you push a device out based on deadlines rather than completion of thorough testing. regardless of what company is putting the phone out - HTC, samsung, LG... any of them will have problems if they don't ensure a good testing phase pre-release.
i went from the moment to the evo 3D, and the difference is night and day. and i have handled a gs2 and all i can say is i am not impressed. it feels weak and flimsy and in the end, it's still a samsung to me, with the samsung company behind it. i will never own one. but that's just me.
meanwhile, my evo 3D seems to be just a powerhouse in the performance area. i consistently hit quadrant scores over 4300 and linpack scores of 100+ and RL benchmark is completed in about 18 seconds.
there are merely a couple phones out there putting numbers like that down consistently. i know it is that fast in reality, as well, because performing tasks such as viewing, zipping, and opening pdfs from my work email are done extremely fast, and significantly faster than when the phone wasn't rooted with a custom rom/kernel.
just my opinion, but if you can't see the advantage in power and functionality in the android OS, you are not using your phone for anything other than playing games and texting.
I played this bubble game, it's fun. After a few rounds I found myself always stopped in the middle by the app ad and when I restarted the game, the previous records were all gone. Annoying!
Europa. said:
I played this bubble game, it's fun. After a few rounds I found myself always stopped in the middle by the app ad and when I restarted the game, the previous records were all gone. Annoying!
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I love the relevance! Made my day so far
I agree with most of your arguments, but there's nothing we can do about it.
Manufacturers are still going to release one smartphone per month because people are used to buy tons of different phones to show to their friends.
More smartphones = more profit.
Doesn't matter if for the market it would be a lot better to play with only one "model" like iPhone does.
Let's hope that Google's Nexus can step up its game and be the iPhone rival.
hello
im a new user to this forum and very happy from this.
please help me for buy a smart phone.
please comparison between sensation and galaxy sii and consider sensation is cheaper than galaxy but it has the more features of galaxy
thanks alot
Sensation is better than Galaxy. Hands down.
It's not better than the Galaxy Nexus, though...
To the OP, wait until February. The Mobile World Congress takes place then and you'll see all the new handsets being released. THEN you can make a proper decision
arzbhatia said:
Sensation is better than Galaxy. Hands down.
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Not really. If I had the chance to change my sensation to an galaxy, I wouldn't doubt a second. The crappy build, and the crappy everything, makes me want to give HTC one on the head.
TheStigx said:
Not really. If I had the chance to change my sensation to an galaxy, I wouldn't doubt a second. The crappy build, and the crappy everything, makes me want to give HTC one on the head.
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If I could switch I would do it in an instant. Can't use the phone in bed due to wifi signal, random signal drops with 3 different phones with multiple roms, low res screen, etc. Its worth only 350 now too, with phones like GS2 still holding their price.
Ali_Shaikh said:
If I could switch I would do it in an instant. Can't use the phone in bed due to wifi signal, random signal drops with 3 different phones with multiple roms, low res screen, etc. Its worth only 350 now too, with phones like GS2 still holding their price.
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Absolutely !
Hmm, everyone has different choices.
Anyway, I totally agree with Eddy over here.. you should wait till Feb.
I'd go for the sensation..the GSII feels like a cheap plastic phone for little kids to play with
I own a sensation XE while my other half owns a S2. Side by side the s2 is faster by a few seconds. But thats about it. They both run the same games as well as each other. The screens both look good (better colours on the S2 but more crisp image on the Sensation. The build quality is good on both. If you don't mind the plastic. If you like a premium feeling device I would go with the Sensation.
I'd go SGS2. My brother-in-law has one and I've had a chance to play with it quite a bit. I'm pretty envious, but I would never tell him that haha.
As for why? The legend of HTC build quality just isn't true anymore. My volume rocker has started to stick after 5 months and it's annoying, my power button double presses when I don't have the case on, wifi deathgrip really sucks, and the cellular antenna design is just terrible. Integrated with the removable back cover? Really?? That's not even getting into the fact that SGS2 is just plain out faster than Sensation.
Sensation isn't a bad phone mind you. I would trade it in a heartbeat, but I still like it. It's still a very nice high end device that does what I want it to do. But if the SGS2 was out when I so desperately needed a phone 5 months ago, I probably wouldn't be posting this.
But like EddyOS said. Best thing to do is wait if you can.
I think the only differences between the SGSII and the Sensation are
SGSII has NFC, Sensation doesn't
SAMOLED+ vs. S-LCD Display
Touchwiz vs. Sense 3.0
it's comepletely up to you.
thanks from those who responded.
see,sensation has a lot of gsII's options and it's cheaper than gsII.but,galaxy had been better in the tests.i wish i made a poll to make it easier to decide.
i used my uncle galaxy sii and i hate it's user interface and i thought the htc user interface is so better and it's more beautiful than sumsong
thank's a lot.
You won't be happy with the software on the sensation. Go SG2
HTC Sensation.....FTW !!
Backthen said:
You won't be happy with the software on the sensation. Go SG2
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ok.it's personalisation that you like this user interface or that one.i think HTC company works on the software a lot and it's software is more beautiful,more performance and.... than the others.
please talk more about their hardware and thanks a lot.
Well, here's my personal experience with both devices. I believe there's also still a topic I started hidden somewhere on the forums here when I was to decide wether to go with the SGSII, Sensation (XE) or wait for the Galaxy Nexus.
Now I'm in the possession of both the SGSII and the Sensation XE, so I pretty much have the best of both worlds. Down here is a quick overview of my personal experiences and a conclusion to why I'm using my current device (the Sensation XE).
Samsung Galaxy SII - International White Edition
At first glance it seemed like a great phone, small in design and a dedicated home button which can also wake up your phone instead of having to pry around with a power button alone. However, after holding it in my hands entirely set up with the battery in it, the weight was just way to low. I actually had to check my pockets regularly just to see if I was still in the possession of my phone. Now, I can see why people would like that, but the fact that the phone is so light comes with a price.
The durability of the phone seems to be abysmal. After inserting the battery and the simcard+MicroSD I had to put the back cover back on. That went according to plan, but suddenly I felt that the back cover wasn't matching up with the phone's housing anymore. There was a slight bulge where you have to insert your fingernail to remove the back cover which annoyed me to no end. After that, I decided to get a cover for my phone so it would stop annoying me, which it did.
Then the next issue arose with the hardware of the phone. The home button started to wiggle around a bit. no biggie I guessed, and just kept using the phone as it was. After a week or 2, a cracking noise came from the home button. Seeing as I hardly use the home button, it kind of surprised me, and I decided to think of it as a way to "crack in the device" like a new pair of shoes. Regardless, after a few more days of moderately to heavily using the phone, the cracking noise only got worse, and I decided to return the phone.
The replacement phone immediately suffered the same issue with the back cover, but with my case around it, it wasn't noticable, but the thought of knowing that it's there still annoyed me. Also, I had lost faith in the home button and tried to avoid using it as much as possible, so I only used the power button on the right side to wake my phone etc. After a while, the power button started failing to wake up my phone and I was forced to use my home button once again.
As far as software goes, the standard TouchWiz interface which comes with the phone is a immense piece of ****, excuse my language. I cannot tell you enough how much I hated it. Regardless, this is all up to personal preference, but it lagged for me at times, and only a complete reboot of the phone would restore a bit of fluidity.
The screen however is amazing. Regardless of the fact that the colors are over saturated to an extreme, the pictures and browsing I did seemed clear as day. No issues whatsoever with it. The only gripe I had with the screen was its resolution. at a 480x800 resolution, text would often appear jagged around the edges and not as sharp as I would have liked it to be. Even installling the Roboto font which is specifically made for text clarity, couldn't take away the roughness of the letters.
That's when I decided to start looking into custom roms, rooting and kernels. After trying out a multitude of roms, ranging from the golden oldies which have had quite some development time behind them to the recently released ones, the only rom which made my SGSII feel as it should be was Cyanogenmod. I must say that I was impressed by the fluidity of it. Regardless, I had to give up certain hardware acceleration options just to get a more fluid phone, which is not how it was intended in my opinion. This resulted in my feeling ripped off by Samsung.
However, the benchmark scores on the customised SGSII were out of this world. once you OC the processor to it's max and run a few benchies, you'll be quite impressed by what the device is capable of. However, in day to day use, it's impossible to keep overclocking it without having an immense amount of additional batteries stowed away in your bag, which brings me to my last point.
Before I chose to go to the Android side, I used to own an i4. Yes I know, bad choice and glad I'm back on the Android side after a year. However, the i4's battery life was simply amazing compared to the SGSII. The SGSII would not last me close to a days worth of work and I often had to recharge in the middle of the day. Note: This occured even with underclocking the processor, turning Wi-fi off and all the battery saving things which have been mentioned here on XDA. Whereas I was offended by the i4 that the battery didn't last me 2 days of moderate use (some games, browsing, video's and heavy music usage) the SGSII just left me baffled over the abysmal results it was producing. This is no different on the Sensation, but more on that in my second segment.
TLDR: Plastic device with rather bad production quality with hardware failures all around on 2 seperate devices. Great screen for colors, not so great for text. Battery life leaves much to be desired and fluidity of the device could most certainly be a lot better. A definite featherweight though, and if that's your thing, this is the ideal phone.
HTC Sensation XE Edition
The hardware on the phone is simply phenomenal. The aluminium finish really makes a difference in both style and quality. The fact that the entire frame is replacable is definitely a plus for when you accidentally drop your phone and the panel is scratched. The outside was definitely hard to remove the first time, but after inserting the battery, simcard and SD card, I didn't need to reopen the device again. Once closed up the construction still feels very solid without any mishaps on production quality. The weight of the phone is a lot more as how I like it and the rounded edges make it a lot easier to hold in my hands compared to both the i4 and the sgsII with their sharper edges.
As far as the hardware goes, people have reported both light leakages and dust under the screen, but I did not experience any of those issues on my Sensation XE. The screen is still dust free after 2 months of usage, and there is no light leakage whatsoever. I inspected the device for light leakage in a dark room under my blanket with the screen on and off for an extended period of time. The softkey buttons respond well and the volume rocker is solid as I like it. The power button is slightly more inconveniently placed, but nothing to fret about.
As far as the software goes. The Sense 3.0 interface which comes standard with the phone really makes this phone as special as it is. Unable to be ported to any other manufactureres devices, Sense provided me with sleek visuals while remaining to give me a fluid experience with the device. Ever so often the device would soft-reset itself because it runs out of memory though. Which could be seen as an annoyance at start, but hasn't happened to me after the first week for some odd reason. The Sense overlay really made my like this phone, and I have since then looked upon all previous devices I owned as inferior when it comes to their individual overlays.
The screen, standing at a qHD resolution of 960x540 which is simply great. Not astounishingly great, but it simply is wonderful. While I've always been sceptic about resolution differences on phones it has become more than apparant to me that even this tiny resolution difference on this 4.3'' screen makes a huge difference. Text is sharper, images are sharper and the overall experience is far more enjoyable. Not only when browsing, but while looking at videos and pictures as well. The colors aren't quite as vibrant as on the SGSII, but that's not something I'm actually missing. There have been talks about the screen having washed out colors at certain angles, but please, at the angles where the colors start washing out, you won't be using your device anyway.
The modding community for the Sensation seems to be quite equal to the SGSII's community, but there's one difference. The Sensation mod community seems to be a much nicer bunch compared to the SGSII, keep in mind that this is a subjective view, and should not be taken as a fact. After S-off'ing the device, rooting and installing custom roms, it's hard to stick with one certain rom while thre is so much to choose from here. Ranging from the standard Sensation roms to the XE roms and kernels, there's plenty to mess around with.
The battery life however, oh oh oh HTC, you failed there. You made an excellent device and then simply mess it all up with the battery. At first I wasn't able to get through an afternoon with the device. But that was mostly thanks to my "honeymoon" period with the device where I tried to exert its every resource. After installing a couple of different kernels and roms, I've managed to get up to 16 hours of battery out of the phone, which is more than acceptable. Keep in mind though that you might want to consider getting an extended battery.
TLDR: Great build quality with a good weight attached to it. Sense overlay really is a + for me, and the higher resolution screen definitely helps the Sensation in its presentational value. The battery life and lesser amount of ram shouldn't have been there on the flagship device, but when looking at the device in it's entirety, I must say that this is the least of my worries. Definitely a worthy device.
Conclusion:
I love my Senny, the form factor and android overlay simply made this phone into my favorite phone so far. It has also refilled my trust in HTC and its products after the failure which was the G1. I currently only use my SGSII as a backup device for when my battery dies on my Senny and is pretty much used as data storage whenever not in use, as that's all what its good for in my opinion.
Do take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I'm currently quite favorable towards the Sensation XE which I own. Nonetheless both devices have their ups and downs, but the upsides of the SGSII do not outweigh the failures.
Excuse this long wall of text and the lack of english grammar, I'm not a native speaker and I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes in here!
Regards,
Vex
Please do your own research and come to your own conclusion. Try your best to get some hands-on experience for yourself with both phones, and pick whatever YOU think is better.
I don't mean this in a condescending manner. I mean this in the most helpful manner possible, because asking one particular group for just their opinions is particularly dangerous.
When you come into our forum, you are going to get a ton of biased responses making it as if our phone is the bomb. Many responses will be critical of the other phone, even though a lot of those responses come from people who don't own that phone and/or haven't even used one before. Another hugely dangerous thing is that people will give you an opinion based on what THEY value, not what you value. You will get a lot of the "SGS2 feels like a toy" responses, which indicates that that person clearly prioritizes the feel of a phone. Those voices will crowd out the few voices of people with different values (like me), who would say things like "Sensation performs like a toy". People will say run a custom ROM, OC, different kernel, yada yada, and I've done all that, and in my experience the Sensation just doesn't run as smoothly as other phones.
There are other things that have made my Sensation experience less than pleasurable. It's just overall an under-spec'd phone IMO. Less RAM than most dual-cores, undoubtedly a pathetic amount of internal storage (1 GB, really?), an asynchronous dual-core that IMO was a poor decision, a screen that lacks in the brightness department (yes, resolution is nice, but brightness is not), software that was just plain and simple horribly finished (I love Sense but I cannot stand how much of a fail it was in terms of making sure it would run well and smoothly), a horrible speaker (worst I've heard on a phone), "build quality" that makes me question why people continue to praise HTC for that (death grip that is more significant than most phones, a creaky back, dust issues under the screen, and the backlight for the capacitive buttons leaks through a tiny crack on the side of the phone, a pseudo-unibody design), and more. The Sensation is overall just a good device, a 7 out of 10 in my book. The phones of now like the Galaxy Nexus, Droid Razr, and the like are far better IMO on paper, and I'm sure if I got hands-on experience I would like them more than the Sensation.
The issue is that clearly some people who value one certain set of aspects will love the phone. Another group of people who value a different set of aspects won't like it as much. That would be me: poor performance bothers me more than plastic build possibly could (I've had a plastic Samsung phone before, and while it was nothing to look at or hold, it was tough as heck). The thing is, my opinion doesn't matter, because I don't know what YOU value. YOU shouldn't base YOUR decision on what I value.
I suppose it's OK to get opinions from owners, but you HAVE to make sure you get them from both sides, and you HAVE to take them ALL with a grain of salt. Optimally, you'll gather opinions and then get some hands-on experience to see what really applies to you.
I wholeheartedly agree with The Janitor Mop. As you can see, both our experiences differ by quite a large margin. Therefore it is of utmost importance that you try out both devices in-store yourself to draw the best conclusion for yourself.
Even though we can outline our experiences of the device with a slightly biased opinion, the truth of the matter is that none of our needs will be exactly the same as the needs you will have for this particular phone.
So, go to your local store and ask to try out both devices!
Stealing the topic from the owner..
I'd like to ask the same question. I'm going to the US in February, and i'd like to buy a new flagship for me. I had a Nexus S, and now I'm looking for the next.
So, what currently are the best phones, hardware speaking, that are available? Don't mind the OS or brand, and I'm looking mostly for a feature phone, it must be GSM. Thank you a lot.
PS: Forgot to mention, I'm on a budget, $600 tops please.
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Thread moved to Q&A due to it being a question. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.
I've got this MT4GS with a recently replaced screen giving me all sorts of problems, Tmo doesn't have any more of them in-stock for an actual replacement. So lately I've been lurking around the ApexQ forums here, considering whether I take Tmo up on their offer to replace the MT4GS with a Relay. Is this it? Is this the end of the line for higher end sliders?
I get so annoyed when I walk into a Tmo shop and they give me the stink eye over my physical keyboard.
"You should really try Swype"
"Keyboards are going away"
"No one really uses those"
"Just try the S4 out, you'll love it"
Try to swype out a thousand words, then do it with a physical keyboard. I'm a bit of a writer, it might be a tine platform for me to write from, but it works great. Sliders are niche preference, will the entire market really give that up? I'm waiting for Google IO before I make any decisions (because it's coming up pretty soon) but haven't heard any rumors of a high end slider coming down the line. Am I the only one holding my breath here?
Also, I've seen a couple of you post on these forums that have had the MT4GS, I think I would miss the 8MP camera the most. Any thoughts on switching over?
I don't have the relay but I follow it and have played with one. It feels similar in many ways to the MT4Gslide (I have this) but you can really feel the improvements in speed as well as a five row keyboard is just awesome. Being its part of the galaxy s line there should be a fair amount of updates, speculation of course as Samsung hasnt been the best at supporting hardware keyboard phones.
You will miss the camera, not that this one is horrible its just that the MT4Gslide has one of the best ever made. I'm not a huge sense fan but it is better than touchwiz (in my opinion) but more of a resource hog. It is possible to port it over to Sammy phones and has been done before, but I doubt anyone would bother on this phone.
Overall if its a free upgrade I would take it, being I refuse to buy phones from carriers this one would cost me full price and I haven't decided if that's worth it yet.
Good luck on your decision!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
i got both. here are the differences with the relay:
- relay's screen is super amoled pentile... colors are great, resolution sucks big time, pixels can be seen and the red ones are very tiny and the matrix will be very noticeable in some cases
- relay's camera is 5 mp vs 8 of the doubleshot. it is just inferior in both quality and resolution, not much else to say.
- relay keyboard is nicer imho but lacks replicated alt, shift, home, back, menu keys
- battery lasts much longer than the famous 1900mah anker for doubleshot
- the cpu is so much faster, ~2.5x from my findings, also, it heats a lot less
- it is noticeably ligher but more plasticy and flimsy
- stock ics and jb. more development going on
all in all, it is a sidegrade... you lose on some aspects and gain in some others... anyway the high end qwerty era is over since the desire-z/droid 2 period...
I've owned just about every GSM QWERTY device made for android over the past 2 years. I can safely say the Relay is one of the better phones that I've owned for a while.
The G2 was the best phone I've ever had.
The camera is not amazing. It will do in a pinch, but I would take a better keyboard over a better camera any day. The 4G Slide keyboard was horrid. One of the worst I've ever used. I use the keyboard much more than the camera, so my decision was simple. It's based on your preferences, really.
But just remember you don't have many options.
I've been using my relay for about 4 months now and overall I like it a lot.
Some good thoughts first:
The keys are very very good. I find they're slightly less conducive to touch typing than my Sidekick 4G was, but still one of the best small keyboards I've ever used. I can't imagine using a purely touchscreen phone, Swype or not. There's just no competition.
The phone is very quick. I've never once thought to myself "Man, I wish this would happen faster." The OS isn't quite 100% seamless, but it's close enough that I can't find anything to complain about. And things like videos, emulated games, etc are all full speed. The only times I've ever had to wait for something was when I was accessing files, and that's due to my bargain basement SD card.
The battery life has been great. I have no problem getting through my day without carrying a charger with me. Now, I'm not as active a user as some (I don't use facebook, for instance,) but I'm often looking things up on my phone while working, and even using the flashlight, and I always have between a half and a third of my battery when I get home.
The screen and the camera both fall under the category of "It's a phone for chrissakes, what are you expecting??" for me.
The screen is bright, vibrant, sharp. It looks great indoors and passable outside. There's enough room for what it needs to do. If you complain that you can't watch a 1080p movie on your phone, the problem is with your head and not your device. I guess if you offered me a higher resolution I'd take it, but I really don't feel like it needs more. And I wouldn't want the screen to be any bigger. If I wanted a massive screen in my pocket I'd buy an iPad. And then kill myself.
The camera is a dog, but so is every other phone camera in the world. Yes, this one is worse than many. But if you care about what your pictures look like, a $40 digital camera bought used off craigslist will take pictures which are 10 times better than the best cell phone camera on the market. And it's easier to carry a separate phone and camera than it is to have a separate phone and keyboard. So why everybody focuses on the sub-par camera is beyond me.
There's only one thing about the phone which I actually feel is bad, and that's the shape. Coming from a Sidekick 4G, the ergonomics of the phone are a big step down. The Sidekick was a fantastic phone to hold in the hands, both closed an open. The Relay is about as nice to hold as a brick. There's a small lip all around the phone that presses awkwardly against your ear, and it's got a certain awkwardness when open as well. No surprise there, the Galaxy S line has always looked like a knockoff of the iPhone 3G. Why would they start making something comfortable now? </curmudgeon.>
So, yeah. I like it and there's nothing else on the market which comes close to being as good as it. I'd buy one again. I'd suggest it to other people. But I'd also hope that this isn't the last QWERTY Android phone for my network, as there's still room for improvements.
i've came down the g1 (htc dream), g2 (htc desire z), relay lane.
i have my relay now for like 4 weeks. and there's really nothing i can seriously complain about. the cpu and gpu are fast and still come with some reserve. the memory is plenty. the qwerty is a big step up from the dz with the additional row. and battery life is just sweet the dz had the better display when you were outside. the relay's go the far better once you get out of the sunlight.
usually, when i got a new phone, i also got a better cam. but seriously: 5mp is enough for every day use. and as some already stated: it's a cell phone. if you want to have high-end-images, you don't get around buying a dedicated camera. and seriously.. it's the same with the screen resolution. 800x480 is enough for text, websites and pictures to be displayed properly and sharp on the small display. what's the use of a 4" full hd display? besides showing off? again... it's a cell phone. if you want high resolution, get a tablet.
*if* somebody asks me for a cell with a hardware keyboard there really - from my pov - is no reason not to recommend the relay.
and i think it's really a pitty it's not available here in europe and quite hard (and expensive) to get.
i really hope there will be new qwertys that will be available here as well. (the most recent here on sale is the dz).
admittedly the hardware keyboard phones are a niche, but those who want them will be willing to spend a lil more to get them.
Sent from my SGH-T699 using xda app-developers app
I have also used many qwerty phones over the years and have been using the relay for about 5 months now. Previously I have used lg shine xenon, lg shine plus (last lg phone I will ever buy) Sony xperia pro, samsung captivate glide and now the relay. The xperia pro keyboard was the best I have ever used. Too bad it had such low on board memory and only a single core processor.
I hear you on the death of qwerties I can now type quite well with SwiftKey but still love a qwerty for messaging, emails etc. I get the same look from sales staff when I have asked about qwerty sliders.
The relay is the fastest qwerty I have used, bit more than the glides 2x core tegra 2, I also found the keys on the glide to be too flat and there were only 4 rows. Good tactile feedback on the relay, keys are spaced out well and travel is easy. However as mentioned the build quality is not the best and mine has a noticeable wobble when typing. Updates seem good so far although will probably not get past 4.2. I actually went out and bought a q10 last week, loved the new OS but the keyboard was simply too small for me, and for the build quality and screen size the q10 is waaaay over priced, so decided to return it.
On a side note I did a little bit of cosmetic altering the my galaxy s3 stock 2100mah batteries and got them to fit in the relay.. As I live in canada the relay isn't even sold here, and I place battery life pretty much at the top of my list. Need that spare battery and a charger. Anyways good luck with your relay if you get it.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
I'm sure samsung will release a follow up to the Relay, as they seem to be the only manufacturer big enough to support this niche market.
Just give them some more time. They definitely need som enew phones and fresh designs to break up all the slab phones that are coming all the time.
Well, I got the Relay. And with it I end a 8 year HTC only stint which started with the Blue Angel. Fun times...
I just got it today so not much of a chance to play with it. At the moment doing the update. Afterwards will see what else I can do. I find it a bit useless at the moment to try any other ROMs. A bit too early...
I've had 3 previous Android sliders before getting this one - the original G1, Motorola Milestone (which I gave to my husband because it was too big and heavy for me) and the HTC Desire Z. Aside from the Desire Z's incredibly stupid flipping hinge mechanism which I'm convinced was responsible for the display cable dying, it is my favourite of the four (it developed this problem where the screen would die every time I opened the keyboard - I actually disassembled it to see if I could fix it but couldn't)
This phone's not bad and I don't mind it feeling "plasticky" since it's light, while the hinge mechanism seems a lot more solid than HTC's ridiculous designs for the G1 and Desire Z, but the keyboard is LOUD. You have to press the keys really hard and I'm convinced people can hear me typing, which is really not what you want for a mobile device. If you're tweeting under the table during a boring company meeting, you better be good at pretending you're taking minutes!
I also have this weird problem, specific to the Facebook Android app, where it will jump to the top of the page randomly while I'm in the middle of typing a comment. I thought I was pressing something by accident but I've tried typing really carefully and that seem to not be the issue.
I do really miss having a trackball or optical joystick from the HTC devices. It's fine to have arrow keys on the physical kb, but when you have the phone closed sometimes you still want to be able to navigate around and click.
Really happy to have found this thread, has anybody looked at or tried the Motorola Droid 4 ??
It boasts 8MP camera and high definition display, looks like battery lasts a while.. says its splash proof and also has the 4 row keyboard.
I enjoy my glide, but they keyboard with the press on them hasn't ever given me much of an ability to type without looking at the keys..
On my blackberry after a while I was able to roll my fingers across without hardly looking at the keyboard, on computer i type 100wpm so pretty important for me to have a fast typing keyboard. even software app keyboards can't keep up and screw swipe.. without feeling where to rocker my fingers to form words im doomed to choose from autocorrect.
Ever since Updating to the official MM RUU posted in these forums I, and others are stating that they have been getting the following message:
Sending SMS messages
Message failed. Would you like to retry?
Deny Allow
(attached)
I aim opening this in an attempt to try and ascertain what the issue could be. As Nobody seems to have an answer in what limited fashion I asked.
This is on the Official firmware RUU by dottat ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/ver...pment/stock-m-firmware-nand-recovery-t3330972 ).
It was stated elsewhere that this matter was resolved by another dev, but am unable to determine how possibly that was done
This easily happens multiple times a day if I text frequently
carm01 said:
Ever since Updating to the official MM RUU posted in these forums I, and others are stating that they have been getting the following message:
Sending SMS messages
Message failed. Would you like to retry?
Deny Allow
(attached)
I aim opening this in an attempt to try and ascertain what the issue could be. As Nobody seems to have an answer in what limited fashion I asked.
This is on the Official firmware RUU by dottat ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/ver...pment/stock-m-firmware-nand-recovery-t3330972 ).
It was stated elsewhere that this matter was resolved by another dev, but am unable to determine how possibly that was done
This easily happens multiple times a day if I text frequently
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd.
That happened to me before I updated, updating with the ruu fixed it. That was my fix personally, maybe try redownloading the ruu and trying again? I used the first ruu posted by dottat when the marshmallow update dropped.
BadUsername said:
That's odd.
That happened to me before I updated, updating with the ruu fixed it. That was my fix personally, maybe try redownloading the ruu and trying again? I used the first ruu posted by dottat when the marshmallow update dropped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did the RUU, and set it back up. Needless to say this permission garbage in MM is for the birds. I reverted to NEO's rom, and low and behold that message reared its ugly head again. I am beginning to think it is firmware related.
Since I am on my second and last M8 both due to charging port failures I have decided to abandon the M8 permanently, as it is at the end of its life anyways and not worth getting another, and MM has been a horrible experience honestly.. i thought windows 10 permissions were bad
Best Regards
carm01 said:
I did the RUU, and set it back up. Needless to say this permission garbage in MM is for the birds. I reverted to NEO's rom, and low and behold that message reared its ugly head again. I am beginning to think it is firmware related.
Since I am on my second and last M8 both due to charging port failures I have decided to abandon the M8 permanently, as it is at the end of its life anyways and not worth getting another, and MM has been a horrible experience honestly.. i thought windows 10 permissions were bad
Best Regards
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya I'm not sure what to say, I replaced the charging port on mine myself, not a hard fix at all. $12 for the port, $5 for spudger, $9 for the all-in-one screwdriver, and $5 for antistatic tweezers. Though for approximately $40 it may not be worth it to you. I'm hoping the next htc phone has an IR blaster, so I'm going to run this device into the ground.
But I have no idea what could be causing your sms issues. My guess it would have to be firmware related, possibly area specific. On stock I haven't really noticed any problems.
BadUsername said:
Ya I'm not sure what to say, I replaced the charging port on mine myself, not a hard fix at all. $12 for the port, $5 for spudger, $9 for the all-in-one screwdriver, and $5 for antistatic tweezers. Though for approximately $40 it may not be worth it to you. I'm hoping the next htc phone has an IR blaster, so I'm going to run this device into the ground.
But I have no idea what could be causing your sms issues. My guess it would have to be firmware related, possibly area specific. On stock I haven't really noticed any problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HTC 10 has no IR blaster.
I'm a bit upset myself about this but I honestly didn't use it much.
andybones said:
The HTC 10 has no IR blaster.
I'm a bit upset myself about this but I honestly didn't use it much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know it doesn't, I love my IR blaster, I hate having my normal TV remote and it's nice having sole access to my TV through my phone.
BadUsername said:
Ya I'm not sure what to say, I replaced the charging port on mine myself, not a hard fix at all. $12 for the port, $5 for spudger, $9 for the all-in-one screwdriver, and $5 for antistatic tweezers. Though for approximately $40 it may not be worth it to you. I'm hoping the next htc phone has an IR blaster, so I'm going to run this device into the ground.
But I have no idea what could be causing your sms issues. My guess it would have to be firmware related, possibly area specific. On stock I haven't really noticed any problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know I just want a phone that works. I never had issues with any of my other HTC phones and charging port failures. I know its easy, but why fool with it if HTC is not going to support their phones for more than 2 years?
I love HTC phones but their 2 year support life span, and slow updates is frustrating to me. its like dropping 300 to 400 or more every two years for a phone just to stay current with security issues/fixes.
carm01 said:
You know I just want a phone that works. I never had issues with any of my other HTC phones and charging port failures. I know its easy, but why fool with it if HTC is not going to support their phones for more than 2 years?
I love HTC phones but their 2 year support life span, and slow updates is frustrating to me. its like dropping 300 to 400 or more every two years for a phone just to stay current with security issues/fixes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your point, but what phone do you know of that is supported over 2 years?
Hardware failures in my opinion simply happen. Wear and tear on a device takes its toll. The only phone that I know have that have better support is an iPhone. Even then, the device you purchase won't be supported after a few years at most. I've also seen some terrible hardware failures associated with them as well.
I understand not wanting to fix it, but after my charging port broke, I just figured it was worth it to me to replace it myself. I like everything about this phone.
BadUsername said:
I understand your point, but what phone do you know of that is supported over 2 years?
Hardware failures in my opinion simply happen. Wear and tear on a device takes its toll. The only phone that I know have that have better support is an iPhone. Even then, the device you purchase won't be supported after a few years at most. I've also seen some terrible hardware failures associated with them as well.
I understand not wanting to fix it, but after my charging port broke, I just figured it was worth it to me to replace it myself. I like everything about this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All my devices I take excellent care of. Always cased, screen protectors, never; well extremely rarely dropped. If it was not for the lack of support, and red camera garbage i would still be using my m7 as it is still perfect, just no support.
As far as iphone goes. They have software support for 5 years on average, and they hold their value very well. i decided to go with an 6S and it is ungodly fast and responsive. I know some are going to curse me, but it is my choice. I got free WIFI calling and VOLTE. Anyways I got 12 more days to decide before the purchase is final. I understand certain things about it and was aware before I made my decision
I would have gone with the moto pure, however i do not want a phablet, I want something i can hold and work on in one hand. If the M7 was supported I would still be using it ( that damn red or yellow camera crap is annoying blunder that HTC seriously dropped the ball on ).
I would have chose nexus 5x but I found out the USC-C is 2.0 speed, and limited to 32 gigs
Anyways
carm01 said:
All my devices I take excellent care of. Always cased, screen protectors, never; well extremely rarely dropped. If it was not for the lack of support, and red camera garbage i would still be using my m7 as it is still perfect, just no support.
As far as iphone goes. They have software support for 5 years on average, and they hold their value very well. i decided to go with an 6S and it is ungodly fast and responsive. I know some are going to curse me, but it is my choice. I got free WIFI calling and VOLTE. Anyways I got 12 more days to decide before the purchase is final. I understand certain things about it and was aware before I made my decision
I would have gone with the moto pure, however i do not want a phablet, I want something i can hold and work on in one hand. If the M7 was supported I would still be using it ( that damn red or yellow camera crap is annoying blunder that HTC seriously dropped the ball on ).
I would have chose nexus 5x but I found out the USC-C is 2.0 speed, and limited to 32 gigs
Anyways
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, nobody is going to grill you for getting a 6s.
Yes, software support is definitely a reason to get an iphone. I just don't agree with their premium pricing for their handsets and their closed sourced software. Not much innovation going on there, but not everyone needs something that's more than that. I just think you're paying an absurd amount for something that you can't customize at all, not to mention lack of storage space and inferior specs compared to newer android models. And yes I know, specs aren't everything, but truthfully you're paying a lot more for a lot less.
Reasons to get an android revolve around customization and truly being able to change any aspect of your phone. I think with the new doze feature and the improvements google is probably going to make to it, it's going to blow apple out of the water in terms of battery life and overall efficiency. Pretty exciting stuff, it's nice being able to set my phone down at work, pick it up for lunch and having it at 90% battery, despite it being over 2 years old. It's also much easier to fix problems that arise with them, if you're having a problem with your iphone regarding anything related to this there is literally no way to fix it yourself. Take it to the apple store and have them tell you something along the lines of, "sorry, we're unable to revert your phone back to the previous version that worked, but I think we should try a factory reset, have you tried that yet?" like you have no idea how to operate it in the first place . It makes me laugh and frustrates me that there's literally no way to apply any of my knowledge regarding ADB and linux to fix an iphone. If someone comes to me about a problem with their phone, I always tell them, "Well, if you had an android I could probably fix that issue, but I can't fix an iphone."
The last thing I'd buy an iphone for is hardware quality. A friend of mine had a bent iphone 6, a few months ago. Apple refused to replace it for him even though the phone had no other physical damage to it. Now he's like "wow, you're phone is awesome and you can use it as a TV remote too, maybe I'll get an HTC instead next upgrade." It was bent due their manufacturing issues and quality problems after the initial launch, which to me was very well documented. That also would be something I would consider.
To each his own, however there really isn't much out there that's Verizon compatible that I would tell you to get instead. Main reason I'm not getting a phone this year is because nothing looks worth it in my opinion. Maybe LG won't make such an ugly phone, or HTC will put the IR blaster back and integrate their fingerprint scanner into the power button or something. I just won't buy an iPhone because I don't want to be like everyone else, and I don't want to support a company that locks and discourages development on their devices. If everyone had an iPhone this world would be a pretty sad place, a monopoly on a product that discourages creativity and imagination from the general public. Where would our smartphone technology be without android? I doubt we'd have NFC, IR blasters, HD screens, Micro-sd storage options, etc. Apple would have never put anything in because everyone will buy their phones anyway.
Anyway rant done, iPhone 6s is a good device for what it is. I don't think people here will grill you for getting one, they definitely have some advantages that are nice and that I think would be nice if Android wasn't so fragmented. But that's the price you pay for open source software and many companies making competing products. I wouldn't have it any other way.
BadUsername said:
Haha, nobody is going to grill you for getting a 6s.
Yes, software support is definitely a reason to get an iphone. I just don't agree with their premium pricing for their handsets and their closed sourced software. Not much innovation going on there, but not everyone needs something that's more than that. I just think you're paying an absurd amount for something that you can't customize at all, not to mention lack of storage space and inferior specs compared to newer android models. And yes I know, specs aren't everything, but truthfully you're paying a lot more for a lot less.
Reasons to get an android revolve around customization and truly being able to change any aspect of your phone. I think with the new doze feature and the improvements google is probably going to make to it, it's going to blow apple out of the water in terms of battery life and overall efficiency. Pretty exciting stuff, it's nice being able to set my phone down at work, pick it up for lunch and having it at 90% battery, despite it being over 2 years old. It's also much easier to fix problems that arise with them, if you're having a problem with your iphone regarding anything related to this there is literally no way to fix it yourself. Take it to the apple store and have them tell you something along the lines of, "sorry, we're unable to revert your phone back to the previous version that worked, but I think we should try a factory reset, have you tried that yet?" like you have no idea how to operate it in the first place . It makes me laugh and frustrates me that there's literally no way to apply any of my knowledge regarding ADB and linux to fix an iphone. If someone comes to me about a problem with their phone, I always tell them, "Well, if you had an android I could probably fix that issue, but I can't fix an iphone."
The last thing I'd buy an iphone for is hardware quality. A friend of mine had a bent iphone 6, a few months ago. Apple refused to replace it for him even though the phone had no other physical damage to it. Now he's like "wow, you're phone is awesome and you can use it as a TV remote too, maybe I'll get an HTC instead next upgrade." It was bent due their manufacturing issues and quality problems after the initial launch, which to me was very well documented. That also would be something I would consider.
To each his own, however there really isn't much out there that's Verizon compatible that I would tell you to get instead. Main reason I'm not getting a phone this year is because nothing looks worth it in my opinion. Maybe LG won't make such an ugly phone, or HTC will put the IR blaster back and integrate their fingerprint scanner into the power button or something. I just won't buy an iPhone because I don't want to be like everyone else, and I don't want to support a company that locks and discourages development on their devices. If everyone had an iPhone this world would be a pretty sad place, a monopoly on a product that discourages creativity and imagination from the general public. Where would our smartphone technology be without android? I doubt we'd have NFC, IR blasters, HD screens, Micro-sd storage options, etc. Apple would have never put anything in because everyone will buy their phones anyway.
Anyway rant done, iPhone 6s is a good device for what it is. I don't think people here will grill you for getting one, they definitely have some advantages that are nice and that I think would be nice if Android wasn't so fragmented. But that's the price you pay for open source software and many companies making competing products. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I understand all your concerns, and I am with you on the price, and it will be one of the deciding factors as well as Itunes which I am finding most frustrating to use to add files to the device. So i got a few days to think about it.
I, like most of you, was waiting impatiently for this device for the past few weeks. I was given a retail model on Thursday early and wanted to let my thoughts after 48 hours.
I have to say I haven't been this disappointed in a phone in a while. While the phone is a looker, fundamentals are quite lacking.
Battery life - Same as the S7 and that's not a good thing. Has the same inconsistent issues of quick drains while running idle. As an example, was working on my house yesterday for roughly 4 hours and left the phone down with out being touched. Left it at 90% and came back at 74%. Again no usage. I have 3 other Android phones with more apps running and this doesn't happen except on Samsung. They will never change in this regard. Every year I have hope and get sucked into buying one. Same results.
Fingerprint sensor- I was one of the people that thought all the complaining was unwarranted about the fingerprint sensor placement. I thought this is just an issue for certain people with finger dexterity issues or just looking for something to complain about. Boy was I wrong. It's actually worse! It works maybe75% of the time and that is only using my right hand. Forget about the left hand.. way too awkward and difficult to do with one hand. At first, I thought no biggie, I'll just use face scanning or supplement with Iris scanning. Face scanning again is hit and miss and forget about Iris scanning if you are anywhere outside of bright light. I had the note 7 and that seemed to work a ton better. Maybe a software fix coming? Back to the fingerprint issue.. Samsung Pay doesn't even come preloaded on the phone! Why?!?! Because the NFC chip is on back so have fun using the sensor and holding it to a pay device. I was perplexed how this was a main selling point with the s and note series of last year and how it couldn't be preloaded. Hell it is on the gear S3. I used it 3 times yesterday at 3 different stores. I had to hold the phone upside down and the back facing the terminal. Picture that for a second... Holding your finger on a sensor which is located on the back and also having to have the back of the phone facing the CC reader at the same time. It's unreal. It's absolutely crazy that they threw this phone with the sensor placement at last minute and gathered...Oh yeah how are they going to use Pay? Ah just don't preload it and we won't get so many complaints. If you think I'm full of it.. go try it.
As mentioned with unlocking with the fingerprint, the new home button is virtually useless. I am trying to understand why they are trying to reinvent the wheel and not just use the tried and true method that every Android manufacturer has used for the past few years. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to unlock this phone. Too many steps.touch the side button or home button, wait for face unlock to work and if it doesn't then do finger gynastics with the fingerprint sensor. Seriously I wind up just using pattern after both fail. I use my V20 as my DD and it's 100% unlocking with the fingerprint on one touch Everytime. What the [email protected]#&$ were you thinking Samsung?
Audio - I love music and media and I am a wanna be audiophile. The headphone jack output and sound is no better than the S7. Lower output than most phones and music has a tight soundstage. Sound is tinny and missing elements you would hear on other high end phones. The Bluetooth audio is actually better but that was the same as the S7. It's nothing to write home about to be honest. I knew it wasn't going to be V20 quality but I was hoping for better with the akg tuning and Harmon partnership.Maybe those changes will come to the note 8?
Not all is bad with the phone, I love the screen and how I missed wireless charging! But there are fundamental ergonomic design issues that make this phone clumsy to use day to day. It's like you have to think to unlock it instead of it being second nature. People will see what I mean when they get their device. It feels like Samsung rushed again to market a product. I am praying that the note 8 is the next big thing.
sillyphillie said:
It feels like Samsung rushed again to market a product.
I am praying that the note 8 is the next big thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How is this "rushed"? Samsung has had a full year since last year's Galaxy S7, and all the manufacturers have a team actually start working on the NEXT release before they launch the current one. So, OVER a year.
Are you suggesting Samsung do what Apple does? Release a new phone EVERY TWO YEARS? And then the ones in between are just to fix what they screwed up? iPhone 4S = iPhone 4 antenna fiasco fix.
And as for "big", the Notes are TOO big. I will never own a Note phablet.
Just giving my take. This phone is definitely not ready for prime time in my opinion. RAM management is also an issue I forgot to list but that has always been an issue with Samsung so nothing to see here on that. Knew that coming in. Just disappointed they didn't do much to address. Again these are my opinions.
Camera is definitely improved though... Sweet shots I'm getting.
Samsung pay didn't come preloaded in my Verizon S7 Edge, I had to download it. But I do see what you're saying about paying with your fingerprint. But I, myself, have the gear S3 so feel there's no need to use Samsung pay on my phone since the watch does it.
sillyphillie said:
Just giving my take. This phone is definitely not ready for prime time in my opinion. RAM management is also an issue I forgot to list but that has always been an issue with Samsung so nothing to see here on that. Knew that coming in. Just disappointed they didn't do much to address. Again these are my opinions.
Camera is definitely improved though... Sweet shots I'm getting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may not be ready for Prime Time, but they had plenty of time. Any design failures is on Samsung -- their skill set, their design/manufacturing expertise.
Whereas "rushed" is like Google's 2016 Pixel with the HUGE bezels because Huawei turned them down for a Google Pixel phone with no manufacturer branding, and they had to go to HTC and use a re-purposed frame HTC already had -- and they only had 9 months to design/test/release a phone. THAT is "rushed". They couldn't even make it waterproof like they wanted because they ran out of time.
The Pixel and Pixel XL aren’t waterproof because Google ‘ran out of time’
http://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-xl-waterproof-724120/
According to Pierce, when he asked Google why its phone isn’t waterproof, its response was, rather simply: “We ran out of time”.
Pierce states that the development cycle for the smartphone was uncharacteristically short, reportedly “nine months and a week” from design to launch, as Google abandoned its original plans for the phone at the end of 2015.
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Click to collapse
Samsung has no such excuses, unless you are just saying they are incompetent.
I completely agree hence why I sold my pixel months ago. I'm not saying other manufacturers aren't rushing either. Just making a note that Samsung is as well. Anyway.. my take as someone who has the phone already. Hoping software fixes some of the concerns. But that fingerprint sensor and Samsung pay is there to stay.
ChazzMatt said:
Whereas "rushed" is like Google's 2016 Pixel with the HUGE bezels because Huawei turned them down for a Google Pixel phone with no manufacturer branding, and they had to go to HTC and use a re-purposed frame HTC already had
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on its a brand new design... http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8346&idPhone2=8297
Any phone coming out after the s8 and g6 with ugly ass bezels will be dead on arrival, lets see if htc has enough time to shrink those bezel's.
Re: Samsung pay, there are more than a few phones with rear fingerprint scanners and NFC chips that have been out for some time. I've never found this an issue nor have I heard complaints like this. As of right now the technology you're longing for (a front facing under the screen fingerprint scanner, since that's the only feasible alternative with the infinity display) simply hasn't been released. Unfortunately, the reality is it's these shortcomings that are debatably left out (intentionally?) to keep interest in the next iteration and keep overhead down. Hence why we never get the perfect smart phone. I'll you know when I get the device but I assume it's no different then the others: shiny, new, with some improvements, likely the best phone out, but still short of the perfect phone. (Never get too high of expectations, these companies are here to be profitable) I had the G6 all of 2 days before I was left unimpressed, hopefully that's not the case with the S8.
Oh well take my money. Thanks for the write up!
---------- Post added at 05:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 AM ----------
peachpuff said:
Come on its a brand new design... http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=8346&idPhone2=8297
Any phone coming out after the s8 and g6 with ugly ass bezels will be dead on arrival, lets see if htc has enough time to shrink those bezel's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC is screwed if the renditions/leaks are accurate. Still has same general design and big ol bezels
sillyphillie said:
I, like most of you, was waiting impatiently for this device for the past few weeks. I was given a retail model on Thursday early and wanted to let my thoughts after 48 hours.
I have to say I haven't been this disappointed in a phone in a while. While the phone is a looker, fundamentals are quite lacking.
Battery life - Same as the S7 and that's not a good thing. Has the same inconsistent issues of quick drains while running idle. As an example, was working on my house yesterday for roughly 4 hours and left the phone down with out being touched. Left it at 90% and came back at 74%. Again no usage. I have 3 other Android phones with more apps running and this doesn't happen except on Samsung. They will never change in this regard. Every year I have hope and get sucked into buying one. Same results.
Fingerprint sensor- I was one of the people that thought all the complaining was unwarranted about the fingerprint sensor placement. I thought this is just an issue for certain people with finger dexterity issues or just looking for something to complain about. Boy was I wrong. It's actually worse! It works maybe75% of the time and that is only using my right hand. Forget about the left hand.. way too awkward and difficult to do with one hand. At first, I thought no biggie, I'll just use face scanning or supplement with Iris scanning. Face scanning again is hit and miss and forget about Iris scanning if you are anywhere outside of bright light. I had the note 7 and that seemed to work a ton better. Maybe a software fix coming? Back to the fingerprint issue.. Samsung Pay doesn't even come preloaded on the phone! Why?!?! Because the NFC chip is on back so have fun using the sensor and holding it to a pay device. I was perplexed how this was a main selling point with the s and note series of last year and how it couldn't be preloaded. Hell it is on the gear S3. I used it 3 times yesterday at 3 different stores. I had to hold the phone upside down and the back facing the terminal. Picture that for a second... Holding your finger on a sensor which is located on the back and also having to have the back of the phone facing the CC reader at the same time. It's unreal. It's absolutely crazy that they threw this phone with the sensor placement at last minute and gathered...Oh yeah how are they going to use Pay? Ah just don't preload it and we won't get so many complaints. If you think I'm full of it.. go try it.
As mentioned with unlocking with the fingerprint, the new home button is virtually useless. I am trying to understand why they are trying to reinvent the wheel and not just use the tried and true method that every Android manufacturer has used for the past few years. It takes a ridiculous amount of time to unlock this phone. Too many steps.touch the side button or home button, wait for face unlock to work and if it doesn't then do finger gynastics with the fingerprint sensor. Seriously I wind up just using pattern after both fail. I use my V20 as my DD and it's 100% unlocking with the fingerprint on one touch Everytime. What the [email protected]#&$ were you thinking Samsung?
Audio - I love music and media and I am a wanna be audiophile. The headphone jack output and sound is no better than the S7. Lower output than most phones and music has a tight soundstage. Sound is tinny and missing elements you would hear on other high end phones. The Bluetooth audio is actually better but that was the same as the S7. It's nothing to write home about to be honest. I knew it wasn't going to be V20 quality but I was hoping for better with the akg tuning and Harmon partnership.Maybe those changes will come to the note 8?
Not all is bad with the phone, I love the screen and how I missed wireless charging! But there are fundamental ergonomic design issues that make this phone clumsy to use day to day. It's like you have to think to unlock it instead of it being second nature. People will see what I mean when they get their device. It feels like Samsung rushed again to market a product. I am praying that the note 8 is the next big thing.
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I have never used a fingerprint scanner or whatever on a phone, just good old passcode/pattern. It blows my mind people getting all uppity (no you, people in general) over a freaking unlock method to their phone. It's like a new Porsche/Mercedes and instead of talking about its performance people get all hung up on the palm sensor to unlock the door all the while they have the keys. Phones are all about the screen and apps, etc. Who gives a hoot about a stupid fingerprint sensor.
i plan to use samsung pay with Pin instead of fingerprint since it' on the back
Should we cancel our pre-orders then? I'd be more than happy to stick with my Note 4 than pay £55 a month for the next 2 years.
The funny thing about this bezel less design is I really think it's more beauty than function. Maybe it's the bezel less combined with the edge display but I feel less secure with this phone. I have a gs7 and lgv20 I keep referencing back to and when you are out and about the flat display lends to more secure in the hand feel. Maybe even more comfort.
Every year we hear how awesome a phone is from MWC through the first round of reviews. I'm really wanting to know what the consensus will be on this phone. The LG G6 was a darling when announced now the shine has come way off and people are finding out the size and feel are not what's it's cracked up to be. I'm going to give this phone more time and hope it grows on me.
The Phone Company said:
Should we cancel our pre-orders then? I'd be more than happy to stick with my Note 4 than pay £55 a month for the next 2 years.
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everyone's got a different opinion... i am still happy to proceed with my s8 plus, and keep in mind... these folks complainin abt battery life are the US models running SD... and we've got exynos
Is Exnos a more thrifty battery chip?
I will get the EU model in any case.